John Makowsky has always had a flair for producing offence.
That started early on in his lacrosse career growing up in Prince George, where he had two mentors in-house to show him the way.
His dad Tom was a Prince George senior lacrosse veteran starting in the late-1970s and he passed on his boxla secrets to his oldest son Paul, who did likewise once his brother John started showing an interest.
But because of the six-year age gap between the brothers they were never teammates for more than a couple games at time when John made the trip from his home in Vancouver to play in a couple senior C games in the Prince George Senior Lacrosse Association. That happened a couple of times for Tom, who lived his own Gordie Howe scenario of a father playing the game with his sons.
Tom was a spectator in the Kin 1 stands Friday but was enjoying the show on the floor watching John and Paul do their best to spark the Mission Cedar Kings to victory in the Treasure Cove Casino Challenge Cup/B.C. senior C provincial championship. John responded with a goal and three assists, while Paul had a goal and an assist in a 7-6 loss to the Airdrie Mohawks.
"We just couldn't find the holes, it was close at both ends of the floor," said John. "Airdrie's a fast team and they have guys with good hands so that was a really tough matchup. It's going to be lots of fun, good lacrosse and fast-paced and we'll keep it going for the rest of the weekend."
The Mohawks had better scoring chances and more of them, including a handful of breakaways, but ran into a hot goalie in Jeff Passimore, who gave the Cedar Kings a chance to win. They pressed for the equalizer late in the game but could not beat Angus Jenkins guarding the Mohawks' goal.
Taylor McNeill, a junior B pickup, led the Airdrie attack with three goals. Erik Hanson fired a pair and Randy Levick had three assists for the Alberta squad. Gavin Sand and Owen Munro each scored twice for Mission.
Mission went on to play the Wsanec Arrows of Saanicton in the late game Friday.
Paul, an investment consultant, left Prince George for Vancouver 12 years ago. John made the move south last year and works in research and development for Lululemon Athletica, putting to use his familiarity with 3-D printer technology to produce prototypes for the clothing manufacturer. They live in Kitsilano, a one-hour commute from Mission for their weekly practices.
"John came down from Prince George and he wanted to play lacrosse with me so I decided to come out of retirement and I'm a bit out of shape but I can get it done sometimes," said Paul, who should have been credited with a goal in the first period on an in-and-out shot. "Our goalie made a lot of big saves when it counted, I wish we could have got one more for him."
Paul, 31, played junior A in Nanaimo and went on to suit up for senior A and senior B teams in Langley. This is his first time playing in the senior C provincial tournament.
"My dad's been talking about this for the last three or four months and I'm glad we made the trip from Vancouver," Paul said. "It's nice playing with (John), he's in better shape and he's a lot faster than me and he gets me the ball and hopefully sometimes I can put it in the back of the net.
"This is a great group of guys and that's why I decided to play and come back for one or two years. It's been a great experience."
Paul was part of the powerhouse Prince George Posse junior B teams in 2003 and 2004 which included Jeff Moleski, Scott Cable, Jesse Huffman, Blair Lefebvre, Chad Tinney, Clarke Anderson, Leif Paulson, Adam LaBarbera, Russill Mills, Dave Jenkins, Chris Madden, Kevin Piche, Brandon Atherton, George Westwood and Justin Norbraaten, most of whom went on to play junior A in the Lower Mainland.
John joined the Cedar Kings last year at senior C provincials in Burnaby. Mission joined the West Central Lacrosse League as an expansion team in 2016 and made the second round of playoffs this year, losing in a two-game playoff series to Coquitlam.
"It's cool to be out there with your older brother, seeing his idiosynchrasies on the floor and matching yours up with his and trying to sort it out so you can get some sibling connections and put some goals in the net," said John, 25. "Most of the time it was just me watching him, so it's great to get out and play together."
Mission returns to the Kin 2 floor today at noon to play the Co-op Petroleum Stylers, then has a 6 p.m. date with the Westwood Pub Devils at 6 p.m. at Kin 1.
